[nikomen]

I appreciate the parent commenter's post and agree with his conclusions. However, I feel like your point is often overlooked. I'm not as passionate about software development as I would like to be. I enjoy it, but I find other hobbies and interests take up too much of my time outside work to devote the time I would like to programming.

I'm semi-passionate, but probably not passionate enough to get a job at somewhere like Valve. That's fine. However, if the local software shop wants a passionate developer but isn't willing to provide the pay and benefits commensurate with their demands, that's a problem. Employers can't expect to hire passionate, experienced developers when they pay well under market rates and only want to offer 15 days of PTO starting out.